East of Suez and the Commonwealth 1964-1971: East of Suez


Book Description

The main purpose of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) is to publish documents from British official archives on the ending of colonial rule and the context in which this took place. This publication is the first of three volumes which examine the years 1964 to 1971, during which period ten territories became independent and all but one (Aden) became new members of the Commonwealth. Issues considered include: the symbolic significance of the recall of British troops from East of Suez, and the circumstances of Britain's withdrawl from Aden; a reappraisal of British interests in South-East Asia in the context of Singapore's secession from Malaysia; the ending of confrontation with Indonesia; British views on the Vietnam conflict; the end of Britain's treaties of protection in the Persian Gulf and the creation of the UAE.




Reviewing Britain's Presence East of Suez


Book Description

Maike Hausen presents a transnational, multi-perspective review of strategic and security discussions among the former British white settler colonies Australia, Canada and New Zealand in the 1960s. Focusing on the foreign policy debate surrounding the British decision to withdraw their military 'East of Suez' from Southeast Asia, she reviews extensive source material to examine the transformation of political, diplomatic and strategic ties between Great Britain and Australia, Canada and New Zealand. By embedding the East of Suez discussion into a larger framework of long-term postcolonial transformations and developments of the Cold War and decolonization, the study traces how the British decision upset the traditional conduct of concerted foreign policy and led to notions of crisis and uncertainty as well as to reviews that would ultimately contribute to more independent national outlooks and policies.




East of Suez and the Commonwealth 1964-1971: Europe, Rhodesia, Commonwealth


Book Description

The main purpose of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) is to publish documents from British official archives on the ending of colonial rule and the context in which this took place. This publication is the second of three volumes which relate to the years 1964 to 1971, during which period ten territories became independent and all but one (Aden) became new members of the Commonwealth. Issues considered include: Britain's second application to join the EEC; colonial issues at the UN; planning and assessment of priorities for British interests after the withdrawl from Suez; major Whitehall administrative changes and the Overseas Service during 1966 to 1968; an assessment of the value of the Commonwealth to Britain; and developments relating to Rhodesia.




American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region


Book Description

This book critically examines the origins of American diplomacy in the greater Persian Gulf region, arguing that it was the inability of the United States to contend effectively with the disintegration of British imperial authority in the Gulf that eventually led it to assume its current role in the region.




Defining British Citizenship


Book Description

Unlike many nations Britain had not developed a national citizenship by the 20th century. Instead belonging in Britain was merely a function of allegiance to the Crown. This lack of definition was seen as beneficial. This title explores the implications of such vagueness as a new millennium begins.




The diplomacy of decolonisation


Book Description

The book reinterprets the role of the UN during the Congo crisis from 1960 to 1964, presenting a multidimensional view of the organisation. Through an examination of the Anglo-American relationship, the book reveals how the UN helped position this event as a lightning rod in debates about how decolonisation interacted with the Cold War. By examining the ways in which the various dimensions of the UN came into play in Anglo-American considerations of how to handle the Congo crisis, the book reveals how the Congo debate reverberated in wider ideological struggles about how decolonisation evolved and what the role of the UN would be in managing this process. The UN became a central battle ground for ideas and visions of world order; as the newly-independent African and Asian states sought to redress the inequalities created by colonialism, the US and UK sought to maintain the status quo, while the Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld tried to reconcile these two contrasting views.




Internationalism, Imperialism and the Formation of the Contemporary World


Book Description

This volume offers innovative insights into and approaches to the multiple historical intersections between distinct modalities of internationalism and imperialism during the twentieth century, across a range of contexts. Bringing together scholars from diverse theoretical, methodological and geographical backgrounds, the book explores an array of fundamental actors, institutions and processes that have decisively shaped contemporary history and the present. Among other crucial topics, it considers the expansion in the number and scope of activities of international organizations and its impact on formal and informal imperial polities, as well as the propagation of developmentalist ethos and discourses, relating them to major historical processes such as the growing institutionalization of international scrutiny in the interwar years or, later, the emerging global Cold War.




British civic society at the end of empire


Book Description

This book is about the impact of decolonisation on British civic society in the 1960s. It shows how participants in middle class associational life developed optimistic visions for a post-imperial global role. Through the pursuit of international friendship, through educational efforts to know and understand the world, and through the provision of assistance to those in need, the British public imagined themselves as important actors on a global stage. As this book shows, the imperial past remained an important repository of skill, experience, and expertise in the 1960s, one that was called upon by a wide range of associations to justify their developing practices of international engagement. This book will be useful to scholars of modern British history, particularly those with interests in empire, internationalism, and civil society. The book is also designed to be accessible to undergraduates studying these areas.




Continental Drift


Book Description

A fascinating new account of Britain's uneasy relationship with the European continent since the end of the Second World War, set against the backdrop of decolonization, the Cold War and the Anglo-American relationship. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon charts Britain's evolution from an island of imperial Europeans to one of post-imperial Eurosceptics.




We're Here Because You Were There


Book Description

What are the origins of the hostile environment for immigrants in Britain? Drawing on new archival material from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ian Sanjay Patel retells Britain’s recent history in an often shocking account of state racism that still resonates today. In a series of post-war immigration laws, Britain’s colonial and Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa were renamed immigrants. In the late 1960s, British officials drew upon an imperial vision of the world to contain what it saw as a vast immigration ‘crisis’ involving British citizens, passing legislation to block their entry. As a result, British citizenship itself was redefined along racial lines, fatally compromising the Commonwealth and exposing the limits of Britain’s influence in world politics. Combining voices of so-called immigrants trying to make a home in Britain and the politicians, diplomats and commentators who were rethinking the nation, Ian Sanjay Patel excavates the reasons why Britain failed to create a post-imperial national identity. The reactions of the British state to post-war immigration reflected the shift in world politics from empires to decolonization. Despite a new international recognition of racial equality, Britain’s colonial and Commonwealth citizens were subject to a new regime of immigration control based on race. From the Windrush generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean to the South Asians who were forced to migrate from East Africa, Britain was caught between attempting both to restrict the rights of its non-white colonial and Commonwealth citizens and redefine its imperial role in the world. Despite Britain’s desire to join Europe, which eventually occurred in 1973, its post-imperial moment never arrived, subject to endless deferral and reinvention.